FederalDaily - March 29, 2006

Military Looking to Alternative Fuels

The military hopes to cut gasoline consumption by using hydrogen-based fuels. Bill Haris, an engineer with the Army’s National Automotive Center, said the Army has been testing a prototype hydrogen-fuel-cell system installed within a conventional truck platform for about a year now. The fuel cell chemically converts incoming hydrogen into steam and electricity. “There is zero pollution,” Haris said. The prototype is based on a Chevrolet Silverado. The engine, transmission and gas tank were replaced with hydrogen fuel cells and electric motors. The vehicle can reach speeds of 95 miles per hour, but only gets 125 miles per fill-up. “That’s one of the areas that really need to make a huge step forward,” Haris said.

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GAO Responds to Congressional NSPS Questions

Last week the Government Accountability Office (GAO) responded to several questions from congressmen regarding the National Security Personnel System (NSPS), the proposed new Department of Defense (DoD) personnel system. At the request of Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and others, starting in April 2006 GAO will conduct a review of the costs to design, implement and provide training for NSPS. GAO expects to report back to Congress by September 2006 with results from the analysis. In response to a question from Sen. John Warner, R-Va., GAO confirmed that DoD’s final regulations do not discuss a specific process for continuous employee involvement in NSPS decision-making. GAO again emphasized that communication would be key to the success of the system.

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Call for Better EEOC Funding

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) needs increased funding for additional staff rather than restructuring initiatives, said a letter to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Science, State, Justice and Commerce. The letter, signed by 113 congressmen, noted that since 2001, EEOC’s work force has decreased by 20 percent. The EEOC restructuring plan, however, increases the size—and the workload—of several offices. “Unfortunately it has not supplied adequate staffing to deal with the additional workload,” the letter said of the commission’s restructuring. “As a result, the number of cases EEOC is resolving is decreasing.” The current EEOC budget request for fiscal year 2007 represents a $4 million decrease from this year.

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Quality Assurance Problems Linger at DOE

The Department of Energy (DOE) has yet to adequately address quality assurance issues associated with the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a recent report. As earlier reported by Federal Employees News Digest (see the March 6, 2006, issue of FEND), there has been scrutiny of DOE because of e-mail correspondence between department scientists questioning the validity of their own data. While an internal investigation cleared the scientists of any wrongdoing, GAO found that “persistent quality assurance problems could further delay the project.” GAO made several recommendations to DOE, including:

• ensure management tools and measures address potential areas of concern and are properly monitored; and
• maintain consistent performance indicators to allow for comparison of results over time.

The report is available at www.gao.gov/new.items/d06313.pdf.

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